Consumer confidence shot up in March to 110.2 from 95.0 in February, according to the Conference Board. The New York-based research firm credited the increase to confidence in business and the labor m...

The Victoria’s Secret lingerie show on ABC was not indecent. That’s the ruling from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which investigated the racy broadcast after receiving 20 formal complaint...

Three Southern governors urged the government to take action to protect the U.S. textile industry in a recent letter sent to the Bush administration. The governors of North Carolina, South Carolina an...

Liz Claiborne’s Angela Ahrendts has been promoted. The current senior vice president of corporate merchandising and group president for Laundry by Shelli Segal, Lucky Brand Dungarees, the company’s men’s...

The economic downturn may be ending—that’s the word from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit group that monitors the U.S. business cycle’s highs and lows. The group found that the impro...

The U.S. trade deficit grew in January, indicating a continued reliance on imported goods. The trade deficit increased to $28.5 billion in January from $24.7 billion in December, according to the U.S....

Wal-Mart is headed for Japan thanks to an alliance with Japanese retailer Seiyu that will give the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant an option to buy up to two-thirds of Seiyu over the next five ye...

New York-based apparel giant Jones Apparel Group announced plans to purchase Gloria Vanderbilt Corp. in a deal valued at $138 million. The acquisition adds both the Gloria Vanderbilt and the Glo labels to Jon...

Vans has branched into the music business. The Santa Fe Springs-based footwear and apparel maker has been sponsoring the Warped Tour, an annual alternative music festival, for six years and has partnered with...

Friday, March 15

Karl Lagerfeld inked a deal with Italy-based Diesel to create a line of jeans for the Paris designer’s most recent Lagerfeld Gallery collection. The collection is limited to only a few styles and washe...

Attendance was up 10 percent at the Miami Swim Show last month, according to organizers, who declined to give the exact number of buyers who turned out for the biannual show at the Miami Merchandise Mart. The...

Creating promotional products for movies is not a new idea. However, the last decade has ushered in a move from simple promotional T-shirts to full clothing lines connected with some of the most popul...

Kmart will close 16 California stores as part of a company-wide scale-back that will shutter 284 Kmarts nationwide, the company announced. The Troy, Mich.-based discounter sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

John Paul Richard is headed for China. The Calabasas-based manufacturer plans to open 200 retail stores as part of a partnership deal with Chinese firm Hempel Fashion Corp. JPR’s first store is slated ...

Guilford Mills plans to shift gears to become primarily a manufacturer of automotive fabrics as part of the company’s reorganization strategy. The Greensboro, N.C.-based mill filed for Chapter 11 bankr...

Unemployment fell in February to 5.5 percent (from 5.6 percent in January), according to the Labor Department. Analysts said that the drop in unemployment may signal the end of layoffs and the beginni...

Audi has bowed out of sponsorship for Los Angeles Fall 2002 Fashion Week in April but has expressed interest in the Spring 2003 shows, set for November 2002, according to Designer Collections of Los A...

Friday, March 8

The New York-based music mogul and menswear maker launched an upscale denim line called Blue at MAGIC. The collection, which targets a more mature customer than the Sean Jean line, launched with three fits—sli...

The 2-year-old fabric trade show has set a date for its first spring run—March 17–19, 2003 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Fla. The show will continue its fall run in October 2003, also in ...

Two specialty trade show organizations have put together Back-to-School shows for the action sports youth culture in response to manufacturers’ requests for a show geared toward the Back-to-School mark...

Burberry’s Rose Marie Bravo was honored by the Wall Street Journal Europe as the most successful woman in European business. Bravo shared the top spot with Nokia Network’s Sari Baldauf. The newspaper noted the ...

MAGIC International shuttered its International Kids Fashion Show in New York to focus on its other trade shows—namely MAGIC, Femme and the International Fashion Fabric Exhibition. The children’s appare...

Non-manufacturing business increased last month, indicating a recovering economy, according to the Institute of Supply Management (formerly the National Association of Purchasing Management). The Inde...

Loy and Ford designers Frank Ford and Stefan Loy were on hand to introduce their latest collection—an ethereal mix of feminine lace, masculine suitings and second-skin jersey—at a party in their Chinat...

Richard Tyler is going contemporary. The designer will launch a new line called Tyler in April during Los Angeles Fashion Week. The new line will be priced competitively with other designer contempora...

The U.S. economy is improving but at a modest pace, according to Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who submitted testimony on Feb. 27 to the House Committee on Financial Services. Greenspan sai...

Organizers went through growing pains and exhibitors played musical chairs at the Feb. 19–22 run of MAGIC International in Las Vegas as the trade show went through its biggest reorganization since the...

Consumer confidence slipped in February after two months of increases, according to the New York-based Conference Board, which compiles the Consumer Confidence Index. The Index dropped to 94.1 in Febr...

Online shoppers spent $32.6 billion last year, marking a 20 percent increase from online sales in 2000, according to a recent Commerce Department survey. And the last quarter of 2001 saw online sales ...